When Poverty arrived, I now,
Unless I lie, can see, I trow.
Four hundred and a half. Ne’er lynx
(Whose piercing eyesight never blinks)
Could see more clear. In my disgrace
Kind Fortune hath revealed the face
Of perfect love in one dear friend
Through Poverty. I ne’er had kenned8460
His sweet and gentle tenderness
Had he not spied my deep distress;
But forthwith busy haste he made
To bring me kindly help and aid,
And proffered without hope of gain
His all, my woe-worn heart to fain.
XLVI
The Friend the Lover doth remind
That one man only did he find
Faithful in poverty, but he
Gave all he had, unstintingly.8470
A faithful friend
I come, dear friend, quoth he, to make
An offering free, for friendship’s sake,
Alike of life and goods, fear not
To share with me in common lot.
How much then? Nay, no part, but all,
If for the whole your need doth call.
Of Fortune’s gifts, the entire sum
With me weighs not one worthless plum
As ’gainst a friend, nor e’en would I
To you those precious gifts deny8480
